Video on Team Meetings in a Clinical Environment

June 9, 2009

This is archived content; for historical reference only.

The best quality improvement is continuous, and having regularly scheduled clinical team meetings can positively affect clinical care delivery. A 10-minute video produced by CHCF and the California Improvement Network shows how such meetings can make a difference in team effectiveness and provides tips on getting the most from these group interactions.

The video features two different health care organizations to demonstrate how team meetings can help in many situations. The organizations are the diabetes improvement team from Ocean Park Health Center, a San Francisco-based ambulatory clinic, and Pod-D, a team of two physicians and five staff from Eureka Internal Medicine, a multispecialty clinic in Eureka, California. The video shows how the multidisciplinary diabetes improvement team has been able to dramatically increase the diabetic foot-screening rate at the health center, among other improvements. The Pod-D team discusses a wider range of topics, from streamlining the prescription refill process to improving the office environment for staff.

As a result of team meetings, participants say they communicate more consistently with patients, are able to take more initiative because of a greater understanding of clinical goals, and have an increased sense of camaraderie and mutual respect. Among the many tips offered by the video is the importance of including a range of perspectives on the team: at Ocean Park, this included a representative for each discipline involved in caring for patients with diabetes; at Pod-D, it included both providers and frontline staff, such as receptionists and medical assistants.

Examples and templates for effective agenda and minutes forms, discussed in the video, are available under Document Downloads. The complete video is available for streaming and downloading below.